In this recent article called “The Open Source BI Trend Will Grow - Here’s Why” on the DM Direct Newsletter, Rick Mortensen of MARVELIt explains why open source BI is gaining traction and will continue to grow.

He rightly points out that the commercial BI vendors have added layers and layers of ‘advanced features’ that add to the complexity and cost, making their software unsuitable for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Targeted only at Enterprise users, commercial software do not provide sufficient ROI for SMBs which do not meed most of the features, but would still have to pay for them in the license cost.

Open source BI helps SMBs by reducing the total cost of ownership by eliminating license costs. It provides greater flexibility as you can pick and use only what you want. This in turn helps keep implementations short and manageable.

Rick correctly points out that simplicity and focus on the essential is the key to promote adoption of open source BI. Adding unnecessary features and functions adds to the complexity and implementation costs. It is important for open source BI to keep this in mind.

Thanks Shane, for mailing me this link.